Migrant deaths worldwide for third year more than 6,000: IOM

GENEVA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Friday said that its global migrant research project has shown that the migrant fatalities recorded worldwide in 2017 was 6,142.

It was the third consecutive year that the project had recorded more than 6,000 fatalities.

Joel Millman, the spokesperson for IOM, told a press briefing Friday that since tracking began in 2014, more than 26,000 deaths had been recorded, but that was likely only a fraction of the real number.

In the Mediterranean, the IOM spokesperson said, 3,139 deaths and disappearances had been recorded in 2017, which had been above 3,000 for the fourth year in a row.

The IOM also recorded more than 1,700 migrant deaths in Africa in 2017, over 690 of which had occurred in the Sahara.

In the Middle East, IOM said it had repatriated to Afghanistan the bodies of 96 migrants who had died while crossing into Iran last year, 81 of whom had been the victims to vehicle accidents. Enditem